Monday, May 16, 2016

Book Review - Mrs. Engels: A Novel by Gavin McCrea

Not much is known about enigmatic Lizzie Burns. She was an illiterate Irishwoman and the lover of Frederick Engels and then eventually becomes his wife. Lizzie is a poor factory working in Manchester, England who works in the mill Frederick owns. They move to London to be closer to Karl Marx and his family away from the simple life Lizzie knew. Lizzie has to learn how to navigate Victorian high society while avoiding straining her relationship with Frederick.

The novel is broken down into three main segments starting from 1870 to 1872. It is from Lizzie's perspective but it doesn't really give you any information about her. The pieces you do find out, doesn't really make sense nor do you quite understand what motivates certain actions. The story sometimes switches from the present and the past at seemingly random points. It was very hard to keep track of what was going on. At times, the story itself was boring and a tedious read. The author could have made this into so much more but it fell flat.